The four adults surrounded the small boy, touching him with loving hands, showering him with kisses. It was a warm little family reunion until Terry turned around to pull one of those annoying burrs stuck to the edge of her deck shoe. Her scream broke the reunion up, all turning to the direction she was facing. Dekani and his two advisors were crossing over the brook, not slogging through it as the four adults had, but hovering a couple of inches above it. You could just make out their feet beneath the robes, clad in soft leather footwear, no motion of walking present. They all watched in disbelief. Kitt clung to his mother's shift, his small fist white-knuckled with the intensity of his grip, eyes saucer-wide.

As the three finally took a step onto terra-firma, the Texans took several steps back. Robert stepped protectively in front of his wife and child, remembering that Dekani had known about Kitt and now was suspicious of his motives. Hoping his voice belied his uneasiness, he spoke to them, "Don't come any closer! I don't want to fight you. Just let us be on our way and there will be no trouble."

His voice had done him justice, carrying an authorative strength. Dekani and his minions stopped their approach at once. Their emotionless faces giving no trace of whether they might become malicious or continue to be benign. Either way, Robert would not allow them any closer to his son. He had to wonder though, as to what their intrest in Kitt involved

Dekani held out his hands in a passive fashion, showing that he meant no harm. Shendra and Pas-ta'al stood behind him, eyes cast to the ground in submission.

"Robert," the name sounding alien when spoken by the Lord Chancellor, "The boy, your family and you must come back with us to Badramara. Your Tek-zass is very far away. I do not know how you may reach it, but perhaps the Holy One may know of a way for you to return. You do not understand the dangers here, especially once darkness comes. You would not survive the creatures that prowl this area. We can offer you protection, food, drink, bed and anything else you should need. But, it is still of the utmost importance that Kitt meet with Kast-ta'al. You will come with us?"

Robert looked at him incredulously, but considered his words. It was true, that none of them knew what they would be up against in this unknown world. Having to deal with just the tenacious burrs was troublesome, what would the living creatures be like? For Kitt and the women's sake, he would have to relent to Dekani's request and take the offered shelter, even though his intution nagged at the edge of his mind. He really didn't have many choices. He glanced at each face of his family and they looked at him, all but Kitt, who was still clutching his mother's legs, nodded assent, having taken into consideration themselves, that going with Dekani was the only logical thing to do given their circumstance.

"We will come with you," he finally answered, "but, I make no promises in regards to seeing this Holy man of your's. I want no burdens placed on my son."

"Fair enough, Robert. I do hope that you will change your mind about allowing the boy to meet with Kast-ta'al. She was very anxious about getting him safely to Badramara when she commanded me personally to retrieve him."

Pulling himself up to his whole height of five foot eleven inches, Robert turned his head to the Chancellor, raising his chin, showing the man he was in full command of what was right for his son, "We shall see."

He returned to his wife and son's sides, Paul and Terry joined them, gathering in a small circle.

"Robert, " Paul spoke up, "are you really considering going with them? I mean, we don't know anything about them. Who knows what their motives are? For all we know, we could end up as sacrifices to whatever gods they worship. I know that sounds ludicrous, but..."

Robert held up his hand, his face stern, "I know, Paul. The same thought, believe it or not, crossed my mind too. But, I feel we stand a better chance with them then we do out here alone. We also don't know what this new environment holds either. There could be animals, creatures out here that could..." he pauses to look at Kitt, carefully gauging his words for the boy's benefit, before continuing, "could cause us trouble. We have two women and a child to take into consideration. As much as I hold my reserve about going with them, I really don't see that we have any other choice. If we find another opportunity, one that will get us home, we will take it. Until then, we must go with them for now."

The other three adults nodded, faces solemn, finding no alternative but to agree with him. Each of them held an amount of concern, for each other and themselves, hardly daring to imagine of what the outcome of their situation would deal to them. Robert stooped before his son, still clinging to his mother. The boy seemed so vulnerable, not showing his usual confident and robust attitude .

"Kitt, you're safe now. Mom and Dad won't let anything happen to you, I promise. We are going to go with these people to their city and find out how we can get home. Can you deal with that, Pokemon Master?" he speaks gently to his son, using the title he had honored the boy with when he saw how well he could handle himself on his Pokemon Game.

A tear stained face peers out from his mother's side, little hitching sobs causing his blonde head to bob. His eyes stand out startling blue against his tear reddened whites.

"Y..y..yes, Daddy. I can do that," the boy answers and begins the task of pulling himself together by letting his death grip on his mother go.

Robert rewards Kitt with a beaming smile and a touseling of his hair, leaving it to stand up in soft spikes. Grimacing, the boy combs his fingers through it, doing his best to smooth it down.

"Ah, gee, Dad! Did you have to go and muss up my hair?"

Both parents laughed, Kitt not looking amused. "Let's go," the father announced, turning back to face Dekani, "Lead the way, Lord Chancellor."

The group recrossed the creek, the three strangers floating above the water ahead of them. Their longs robes skimming the top of the water, but, amazingly, staying dry. Kitt was walking through the cold exhilerating water in a crouch, his eyes trying to peer up beneath the robes to see what was suspending them above the water, but seeing only the leather bottoms of sandals. His curiousity so intensely piqued by these peoples abilities. He sought to find answers to all these amazing things that have occurred, and that involved asking questions.

The boy slogged past the adults in a spray of cold water, his barefeet tickled by bright green algae growing on the smooth rocks beneath a crystal clear surface. Little things that appeared to be some sort of fish, darted off in a shimmer of silver. Kitt caught at the robe hem of Pas-ta'al, who was trailing behind his two comrades, giving a light tug on the coarse fabric. The emotionless face of the man turns down to the boy, a good twelves inches further below him than normal. His large almond shaped, honey brown eyes appearing out of place on a humanoid countenance. A bare trace of a smile turns the corners of his thin lips up, his head swiveling back to mark his progress, "Yes, Kitt, what is it you would like to know?"

Kitt's mouth drops open, blue eyes widening, "You..you knew I was going to ask you something! Can you read minds? How? How do you that! How can you float above the water? What is this place and how did we get here?"

The string of questions babble out of him, a fountain of youth and curiousity, an inquisitve mind seeking answers.

A chortling laugh, low and mellow, erupts from Pas-Ta'al, "Ah, young one, you are so full of being a child. Something I have not seen in a very long time. It warms me to see such exuberance again."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm a kid." Kitt says pouting, put out that his questions were not being answered. "But how do you do these things?"